Fairy Tail Chapter 537 Discussion
- Thread starter ChaosSpawn
- Start date
- #67
Genius? Why? Please explain.
Ok, then let´s start with the definition of love first.
Depending on what kind of person you ask you´ll get different answers.
1. If you ask a Biologist, he´ll tell you that certain amounts of salsa inside your brain are concentrated with the correct dosage causing a reaction that´s positive for your bodily functions.
2. If you ask a relgious zealot he´ll tell you that it´s a gift from god and it exists to make us happy.
3.If you ask a spiritual person, someone who considers the secrets of the universe beyond his own meek comprehension, he´ll tell you that it´s a wonderful feeling that´s unique and unexplainable.
Now that that´s been established we must also differentiate between the different types of love, established by society and their defined purposes.
For the sake of simplification I´ll use the simplest model and differentiate only between two different kinds of love. The model I assume Hiro Mashima himself utilizes which is prominent in japanese culture.
A: In the japanese language they differentiate between romatinc, or sexual love恋[Koi] .
and
B: General love l愛[Ai] (not platonic love) a definition that defines all love towards anyone besides people you love to fuck. The love you can have towards friends, family etc and also the term Hiro Mashima generally uses when he refers to love in his Manga. l愛[Ai], unlike platonic love, can also refer to a romantic partner if the person uttering the word wants to remove the sexual undertone from his assertion. Which is why it´s translated as the "pure" or "innocent" form of love. Or how I like to call it, "Mom and Dad love after they´ve been married for over 30 years".
So, depending on who you ask for either purpose you´ll get yet again different answers.
4. Anthropologists a subgroup of the biologists, generally will refer to 恋[Koi] romantic love, as a motivation for humans to breed. An effect based on primal instict to keep the species from extinction.
While they consider 愛[Ai], the social form of love that enhances the survivability rates of it´s practitioners descendants, through tribalism.
5. A philosopher on the other hand, argueably a subgroup of the spiritualist, will define both forms of love as necessary for a human to exist. Therefore making them equal in value, depending on the viewpoint.
Now, let´s asume, the likely conclusion, that Hiro Mashima is the 3rd type of person, judging by the way he writes his stories. Someone that refuses the nihilistic scientific approach towards the concept of love and embraces the uncertain humanistic approach towards love.
Love or specifically 愛[Ai], as in general love, is a big deal within the from Hiro Mashima fabricated universe and his story is directed at people that agree with his fundamental beliefs of love being a not rationalizable, but essential addition for an individuals development. It´s a feeling, everyone needs.
A belief scientists and arts scholars alike agree upon.
Scientists just claim the necessity to be explainable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternal_deprivation
Hence, making the concept and it´s importance universally understandable by everyone. Everyone can relate to loving others.
Now to Hiro Mashima´s own concept.
Iit´s established that love in his univese is etherial and also indispensable for every individual to stay alive. But because of that he created a paradox with Zeref´s character, similar to that of The omnipotence paradox
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotence_paradox
It shouldn´t work, but Hiro Mashima is the god of his universe so he can do whatever the fuck he wants, something he does all the time, the reason this series is so bad. However, Zeref´s curse creates an interesting character study.
As beforehand established, according to science and the arts, humans are social. No human can stay lonely for extended periods of time, without becoming eventually unhappy and no human can socialize with others without becoming eventually affectionate towards someone or something within his surroundings. Effectively loving them in one way or the other.
If you deprive a human long enough from feeling affection he´ll eventually turn insane or die. Zeref can´t die and insanity is contradiction by nature, hence the name. A story that is a great depiction of the effects of the forceful isolation towards an individual is the Book "As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me", you should read it.
But back to the "The curse of Contradiction".
Now, instead of removing any possibility of communication, by putting Zeref in a vacuum, like aformentioned book does with it´s main character, Zeref is still allowed to socialize with his surroundings. But, the price for this privilege is the death to anything he shows affection towards. However, Zeref has a consciousness and the extinguishment of life hurts him mentally, since it goes against his moral code. To avoid the death of others he has to force himself to feel at least indifferent towards anything around him. Enforcing the isolation upon himself. At the same time he already had perceived affection and was fond of giving it back, like it naturally is. The condition he experiences is not only permanent torture, but it´s also self inflicted to avoid greater damage towards his environment. At the same time the solution for his curse to be lifted is to be loved by someone else. That love being necessarily honest affection, judged by an omnipotent onlooker, who can differentiates between the two established variants of love. To accomplish that. must socialize with others and make them feel pure love l愛[Ai] towards him, without him, who is deprived and hungry for love, being able to love them in return. Because if he did that person would die.
At the same time, he is forced to die should someone ever accomplish that level of affection towards him for some inexplicable reason, given his exxagerated "Beauty and the Beast" condition, leaving that person behind.
At the same time he was forced to live through an over 400 year isolation. A relateable, yet unimagineable in scope punishment. for every human who has went through loneliness, or the denial of affection.
His condition is understandable because everyone knows how painful these feelings or their lack thereof can be. But while people in the real world can influence their own future, he´s boned and has to rely on someone else to love him.
Zeref´s destiny is a predetermined tragic one, either for him or for the ones who would love him,without being melodramatic, given the circumstances he already went through.
- #71
short_review said:
Also I like how Mavis doesn't care when Zeref says "If I die Natsu dies too".
Yeah ... whatever ... he's just the main char ...
She isn't worried in the slightest because she knows you can't beat the plot armour that the Fairy Tail members possess.
In 8 chapters Zeref and Mavis will both be spirits chilling in the guild hall, Acnologia is the new fucking maid of Fairy Tail and Gildarts is still nowhere to be fucking found.
100% agree. Will still read it though- but seriously how many times can Makarov die and yet... still be alive.
- #73
Mashima has such a lousy definition of love, it's a wonder the dude's that good at drawing fapbait. More like, that's the only thing he's ever been good at.
You mean to tell me that when Mavis was going on about how she was the only one who understands Zeref and how they'd find a way to break the curse together, crying about it even, it was "passion"? That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. You can't just write a shonen based around the very concept of love triumphing all, and then have a very clear display of love by FT's standards and then write it off as simply "passion". It's just Mashima retconning as he see fit as always. Nice way to ruin an okay scene I guess though, having it be underplayed just for the sake of finding a way to defeat the Big Bad later on.
http://i4.mangareader.net/fairy-tail/450/fairy-tail-6042499.jpg
"And the love BETWEEN the two that have been living with the curse" UH-OH. Guess the whole thing falls apart then. Yep, definitely retcon.
It speaks volumes when a character such as Zeref getting his happy ending despite all the terrible stuff he's done isn't even the worst part of the chapter. The dude's literally redeemed because he fucked the loli. Bloody brilliant. And then Makarov wakes up from his dream. Truly the gift that keeps on giving.